Faeria is the debut title of the independent Belgian game company Abrakam and they’ve come out strong from the beginning. This title is described as a Strategy Game (think Heartstone with a twist) and doesn’t drain the player’s bank account for new cards every week if you want to stay competitive. Faeria was partly funded through Kickstarter, raising over 94k USD in November 2013. In March 2016 the game was launched as an Early Access title on Steam and it has been officially released in early 2017. This review revolves around the first expansion titled Fall of Everlife, which introduces 40 brand new cards and subtypes. Is Faeria yet another card gathering game where you need to keep up with latest meta or can you do your own thing and still feel like you are accomplishing something?

Story

The story for Faeria is very extensive and immersive. At first, the world (Orobouros, a single giant snake) was created by the Gods and all was well for a long time. The Gods were pleased with their creation and decided they could make it even better: thus the four most powerful Gods of Elements arose: Aoros, God of rocks and mountains and Gaea, Goddess of nature (bound by the earth); Alua, Goddess of the seas and oceans and Astar, God of the winds (bound by the sky).

The world was then destroyed by the Gods and it slowly recovered from the damages leading to the creation of new continents and a new era. Twenty factions slowly rose up, new alliances and feuds came into existence. This is where the player arrives, not as a general nor a summoner, but as a God. A God who controls all kinds of creatures to fight the opposing Gods to get his memory and power back.

Graphics

Faeria looks like it could be in a fantasy novel, everything invokes a very Magic: The Gathering vibe – from the card design down to the surroundings. There is no clutter, the entire layout feels intuitive and the actions from the cards are all nicely animated.

Sound

Faeria is a relaxed game and it conveys that in the soundtrack/in-game sounds. No techno music or heavy bass in this title, it’s all melodious and comforting. You could sit for hours listening to the soundtrack without getting bored or irritated by it, it makes you feel at home, relaxed even. The Asian influence that streaks through everything is subtle yet so noticeable. When you start up the game, it feels like you are returning to the Shire – as if you are revisiting an old but dear friend.

Gameplay

Faeria: Fall of Everlife is described as a Strategy Game, though it can be also described as a Turn based Strategy Trading Card Game with an everchanging game board. When starting up the game, you feel overwhelmed with the plethora of information that is displayed on your screen. It is easy to lose track of what you are supposed to do or where you should go next but luckily the game takes you by the hand and guides you through the initial phase of the game. It teaches you the basics of the game at a slow but measured pace, in a caring way even. You go through several tutorials that explain the basics of the game, such as how to hire monsters, how to create land for them to fight on, puzzles designed to make you think out of the box and finish a scenario within a set amount of turns and so on.

As Faeria is still a TCG at its core, games do not take forever to finish – an average of 5 minutes if you play at a normal pace is acceptable. Both players start with 30 cards and whoever goes first is chosen at random. You can create a deck based on one of the four factions (Mountain, Forest, Desert, Lake) and use this to play solo missions, try out your deck vs AI or play against real players. Every player starts with the base number of cards and through playing solo missions you gradually unlock everything – there is no need to buy booster packs to keep up with the current meta! Though this can be frustrating for the players that don’t have a lot of time to play a game and thus rely on being able to buy shortcuts.

The flow of the game is how you want it to be, just as the playstyle you choose to adopt. As mentioned before, you must build your way to the enemy while gathering mana (called Faeria) to hire the more powerful units. You can decide to slowly build a solid starting area before encroaching on the enemy or you can just rush him and bash in his head (each player starts with 20 HP; your goal is to make sure the enemy reaches 0 before you do).

The expansion introduces the “Corrupt” Keyword which causes an action to take place, which can be anything from “Gain X/X” to “Draw 2 events from your deck”. Subtypes are also introduced (Yaks, Rakoans and Beasts) which allow the player to build a deck around specific creatures and ensure their deck gets stronger as the game progresses.

Conclusion

Faeria is a well-crafted title with a long history and loving development team behind it. If you like TCGs, strategy games or Belgian titles – this is a title for you. If you dislike Pay to Win and want to unlock everything at your own pace but still feel like you’re able to reach the same heights as everyone else – this is a title for you. Fall of Everlife is a well-crafted expansion to a surprisingly addictive game and if you like the original, you will definitely love the expansion.